Jim Schwartz Explains Why Kellen Moore Made Lions Roster

Based on his performance in the first week of the preseason, quarterback Kellen Moore seemed like a bit of a long shot to make the Detroit Lions' 53-man roster. Even in the final weeks when he showed improvement he seemed like a long shot to some. However, based on comments made by Jim Schwartz leading up to the final round of cuts, it became clear that Moore would be sticking around, and that's exactly what ended up happening.

Although Moore has now made the team, many (myself included) believe that the Lions would be better served using the third quarterback spot on depth at another position. I'm still not convinced that Moore was one of the Lions' top 53 players, but Schwartz and the coaches clearly differ in their opinion of the situation. On Monday, Schwartz explained that their belief that Moore was one of the 53-best players is why he is still on the team. From MLive:

"Quarterbacks are a commodity," Schwartz said. "It's a very important position, and we liked what we saw from Kellen. We wanted to find a way to keep the best 53. We thought he was one of them."

The hope for the Lions is that Moore won't even dress once during 2012. The only way he will be active on game day is if an injury happens with Matthew Stafford or Shaun Hill. The best-case scenario would be for him to end up like Drew Stanton in 2011 and not be active for a single game. In practice he will obviously get a chance to improve by running the scout team, and hopefully over the course of the next couple years he will improve enough to take over as Stafford's backup when Shaun Hill moves on.

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